Summary
These publications summarise the findings of the first two phases of a review on official laboratories in the UK, conducted between September 2018 and March 2019.
The number of official labs for food and feed testing has been declining, and this has increased concerns over the resilience and future sustainability of the UK’s current lab model.
The reviews assessed the current capacity, capability and governance of the system. They also make recommendations for Board consideration to address gaps and weaknesses to continue our high levels of food and feed safety standards when the UK leaves the EU.
Official control labs provide critical support to Food Standards Scotland, the Food Standards Agency and local authorities by testing the safety and standards of food and animal feed.
In Scotland, the majority of this testing is carried out by the four local authority public analyst labs in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
